Dynamic generation of information using servlet object

ABSTRACT

A method and apparatus for operating a local server computer of a client-server network includes a technique to receive a request from a client computer of the client-server network. A determination is made whether the request requires dynamically generated information from a servlet object of the client-server network. If so, a specified servlet object corresponding to the request may be uploaded from a remote server computer of the client-server network. The specified servlet object is then executed to obtain dynamically generated information corresponding to the request.

This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/314,461 filed May 18,1999, now Pat. No. 6,247,044, which is a continuation of Ser. No.08/828,318, filed Mar. 28, 1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,928,323, which is acontinuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 08/756,325, filed on Nov.25, 1996 now abandoned, which is a continuation of application Ser. No.08/657,712, filed on May 30, 1996, now abandoned.

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Ser. No. 08/756,325filed Nov. 25, 1996, entitled “Method and System for FacilitatingServlets” which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 08/657,712 filed May30, 1996, entitled “Method and System for Facilitating Servlets”.

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by any one of the patentdisclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patentfiles or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rightswhatsoever.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates generally to exchanging information in aclient-server computer environment. More particularly, this inventionrelates to an improved technique for responding to information requestsat a server computer.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Client-server computer networks are well known. The most prominentexample of a client-server computer network is the World Wide Web ofcomputers. In a client-server computer network, a server computerreceives a request for information from a client computer. Web serversoftware operating on the server computer typically retrieves therequested information from a file stored on a permanent storage deviceand transmits the file over the network to the client computer thatrequested the information. The web server software is generally notwritten using an object oriented programming language. Thus, it is noteasily extended to provide new functionality. Given the dynamic natureof today's software marketplace, a product's lack of flexibility andextendibility can seriously hinder the marketability of the product.

Current web server software can generate a file dynamically in responseto a request from a client computer. Typically, the web server receivesthe request and then forks a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) process todynamically create the file. Once the file has been created, the webserver software transmits the file back to the client computer.Unfortunately, it is computationally expensive to fork a process eachtime dynamic information needs to be generated.

In view of the foregoing, it would be highly desirable to provide a webserver which dynamically generates information in response to a clientcomputer request, but which does not incur a process start-up expensewhile generating the dynamic information. Further, it would be highlydesirable to provide an object oriented web server environment that isflexible and extendible.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention includes a method and apparatus for operating a localserver computer of a client-server network. The invention includes atechnique to receive a request from a client computer of theclient-server network. A determination is made whether the requestrequires dynamically generated information from a servlet object of theclient-server network. If so, a specified servlet object correspondingto the request may be uploaded from a remote server computer of theclient-server network. The specified servlet object is then executed toobtain dynamically generated information corresponding to the request.

The servlet objects of the invention provide an object oriented webserver environment which is flexible and extendible. The client-servernetwork of the invention is populated with the servlet objects. Theservlet objects operate in a continual loop until invoked. Thus, thereis no startup overhead associated with execution of the servlet objects.By observing a common applications program interface, the servletobjects can run in any server environment. A feature of the inventionallows untrusted servlet objects to be executed in a secure area, withthe dynamically generated information being passed from the secure areainto the remaining server environment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a better understanding of the nature and objects of the invention,reference should be made to the following detailed description taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a client-server computer network in accordance withan embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a simplified illustration of the interactions between a webserver and the servlets of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a simplified illustration of the interactions between a webserver and a servlet loaded from an external server.

FIG. 4 illustrates processing steps associated with a servlet processingroutine in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates processing steps associated with a servlet processingroutine in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

Like reference numerals refer to corresponding parts throughout theseveral views of the drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 illustrates a client-server computer network 20 that may beoperated in accordance with the present invention. The network 20includes at least one client computer 22 and at least one servercomputer 24. The client computer 22 and the server computer 24 areconnected by a transmission channel 26, which may be any wire orwireless transmission channel.

The client computer 22 is a standard computer including a CentralProcessing Unit (CPU) 30 connected to a memory (primary and/orsecondary) 32. The memory 32 stores a number of computer programs,including a “browser” 34. As known in the art, a browser is used tocommunicate with remote server computers 24 and to visually present theinformation received from such computers. The client computer 22establishes network communications through a standard network connectiondevice 36.

The server computer 24 includes standard server computer components,including a network connection device 40, a CPU 42, and a memory(primary and/or secondary) 44. The memory 44 stores a set of computerprograms to implement the processing associated with the invention. Thememory 44 stores a web server 46. The web server 46 may be of the typeknown in the art, which is modified to include the additional programsshown in FIG. 1. That is, in an embodiment of the invention, a standardweb server 46 is modified to include a server acceptor thread 48, aconnection queue 50, a pool administrator 52, a thread pool 54, servlets56, a servlet map 58, a security administrator 60, and boundary servlets62.

FIG. 2 is a simplified illustration of a server computer 24A constructedin accordance with an embodiment of the invention. The figure shows aweb server 46 interacting with a set of servlets 56A-56N. In particular,the web server 46 interacts with the servlets through an applicationprogram interface (API). As indicated in FIG. 1, the web server 46 andthe servlets 56 are stored in memory 44. The web server 46 may bestandard web server software that is modified to include thefunctionality described herein. Each servlet 56 is a piece of softwarecode which is used to dynamically generate information. Each servlet 56is an instantiated software object waiting to be invoked. Once it isinvoked, it dynamically generates information. Note that this techniqueof dynamically generating information is distinct from the typicalprocess of fetching static information from a permanent storage device.The technique of the invention is similar to a CGI script in the sensethat it dynamically generates information. However, unlike a CGI script,a servlet object of the present invention is instantiated at serverstart-up. Thus, the servlet can be thought of as operating in acontinual loop waiting to be executed. Observe that after instantiationthere is no computational start-up expense when the servlet is called.

FIG. 3 is a general illustration demonstrating additional features ofthe invention. FIG. 3 illustrates a local server computer 24A whichreceives a request from a client computer (not shown) over transmissionchannel 26. The web server 46 determines that dynamically generatedinformation from a servlet object is required. In this case, the servletobject is not initially on the local server computer 24A, thus it isuploaded by the local server computer 24A from a remote server computer24B using communication link 26. In the example of FIG. 3, servlet 56Pis passed from the remote server computer 24B to the local servercomputer 24A.

FIG. 3 illustrates another feature of the invention. In particular, itillustrates that the uploaded servlet 56P is executed in a security area57 of the local server computer 24A. After execution, the results arepassed to a boundary servlet 60 in the remaining portion of the localserver computer 24A. This security feature allows untrusted servlets tobe safely executed.

The foregoing discussion provides a general description of the featuresand benefits of the invention. Attention now turns to a more detaileddescription of these features and benefits. The left side of FIG. 4illustrates processing steps associated with an embodiment of theinvention. The right side of FIG. 4 illustrates program components thatmay be used to execute these operations.

The first processing step shown in FIG. 4 is to determine whether a newrequest has been received (step 70). As indicated above, a request is arequest for information from a client computer 22 to a server computer24. The operation of a client computer 22 requesting information from aserver computer 24 is well known. It is typically performed using aUniform Resource Locator or URL. A URL specifies a computer and a file.A typical URL is http://SU/123. This URL is an instruction to retrievethe file “123” from the State University computer “SU” using theHypertext Transfer Protocol “HTTP”.

As shown in FIG. 4, a server acceptor thread 48 is used to process eachnew request. Preferably, the invention is implemented as aconnection-oriented web server with a server acceptor thread thatcontinually loops while accepting requests. Once a request is received,it dispatches the request to a connection queue (step 72). As shown inFIG. 1, the connection queue 50 is formed in the memory of the localserver computer 24.

If no new request is received, then a check is made to determine whetherthe queue is empty (step 71). If the queue is not empty or a new requesthas been received, processing proceeds to step 74. Step 74 entailsthread pool administration operations, which are executed by a pooladministrator 52. FIG. 1 illustrates a thread pool 54. The thread pool54 is a pool of threads that are used for request processing. Individualthreads fetch and process requests from the connection queue 50. Thepool administrator 52 operates to ensure that there is a thread for eachrequest in the connection queue 50. The pool administrator 52 creates orforks additional threads to handle new requests in the connection queue50. If a maximum number of threads is reached, the pool administrator 52blocks new requests from entering the connection queue 50. In such acase, the server computer does not receive new requests. On the otherhand, if a thread has been waiting more than a predetermined period oftime for a request from the connection queue 50, then the pooladministrator 60 will destroy it. Preferably, a new handler thread iscreated using the buffer space of a destroyed handler thread. In otherwords, the invention is preferably implemented by using a specificbuffer memory space for a thread. When a thread is destroyed, the buffermemory space is cleared, but it is assigned to a new thread. By reusingallocated memory in this manner, this embodiment of the inventionminimizes the amount of memory used by the system, especially whencompared to systems which allocate and deallocate memory on a perrequest basis.

After the thread pool administration operations are performed (step 74)a thread retrieves a request from the connection queue (step 76). Thethread then maps the request to a servlet name (step 78). The servletmay be specified by a URL, in which case the mapping process is direct.On the other hand, some translation process may be required to identifywhich servlet will be able to service the request. The mapping operationmay be performed in one of the following ways. A server administratormay specify that some kinds of client requests always map to aparticular servlet. For example, one which talks to a particulardatabase. A server administrator may specify that part of the clientrequest is the name of the servlet, as found in an administered servletsdirectory. At many sites, that directory would be shared between serverswhich share the load of processing for the site's clients. Some serversmay be able to automatically invoke servlets to filter the output ofother servlets, based on their administrative configuration. Forexample, particular types of servlet output may trigger post-processingby other servlets, perhaps to perform format conversions. Properlyauthorized clients may specify the servlet to be invoked, withoutadministrative intervention.

Security operations may also be performed by the thread (step 80). Asecurity administrator 60 may be used to identify trusted and untrustedclasses of servlets. The decision to trust a servlet may be establishedby a set of rules associated with the security administrator 60. Forexample, the security administrator 60 may decide to trust all localservlets and mistrust all uploaded network servlets. Untrusted servletsare then executed in the security area 57, as shown in FIG. 3. Thesecurity administrator 60 may also be used to determine if the servletis authorized to perform predetermined risky operations. Securityinformation of this type may be stored in the thread.

JAVA servlets in accordance with the invention provide strong securitypolicy support. This is because all JAVA environments provide a SecurityManger which can be used to control whether actions such as network orfile access are to be permitted. By default, all servlets are untrusted,and are not allowed to perform operations such as accessing networkservices or local files. However, servlets “built into” the server, orservlets which have been digitally signed as they were put into JAVAArchive files, may be trusted and granted more permissions by thesecurity manager. A digital signature on executable code indicates thatthe organization which signed the code “vouches for it” in some sense.Such signatures can't support accountability by themselves, but they doindicate a degree of assurance that may be placed on use of that code.For example, a particular signature from an MIS organization might berequired on all code which is granted general access to network serviceswithin a corporate intranet. That signature might only be used on codewhich is strongly believed not to violate particular security policies.Extension APIs in other languages, such as C or scripting languages,can't support such fine grained access controls even if they do allowdigital signatures for their code.

After security operations are performed (step 80), the thread isdispatched (step 82 of FIG. 5). The dispatch operation entails invokinga servlet so that it generates the requested dynamic information. Thedispatch operation is one of two types. A decision is made to determinewhether the servlet is local (step 84). If the servlet is local, thenthe local servlet is executed (step 86). This results in the generationof dynamic information that is then processed by the web server 46 in astandard manner. The web server 46 typically passes the information backto the client computer using known techniques. The exchange ofinformation between a servlet and the web server 46 is achieved throughan application program interface, which is described below.

If the servlet is not local, then it is uploaded from a remote server24B (step 88). A decision is then made regarding whether the uploadedservlet is safe (step 90). Recall that the security operation stepresulted in the thread acquiring information regarding securityparameters for servlets. If there are no security problems associatedwith the uploaded servlet, then it is executed locally (step 92). On theother hand, if a security problem is identified, then the servlet isexecuted in a security area (step 94). Thereafter, the dynamicallygenerated results are passed to the non-security area (step 96). Aboundary servlet may be used for this purpose. The boundary servlet maybe implemented through the use of stubs and subcontracts or throughother “fire wall” techniques known in the art. After the servlet isexecuted, processing returns to step 70 of FIG. 4.

The operation of the invention has now been fully described. Attentionnow turns to a more particular discussion of the servlet objects thatare used in accordance with the invention and an embodiment of theapplication program interface used in connection with the servletobjects. As indicated above, the servlet objects are objects aresoftware objects that are used to dynamically generate information. Theyare instantiated objects that sit in a loop waiting to be invoked.Preferably, they are implemented as object bytecodes in the JAVA™programming language. It is well known that the JAVA™ programminglanguage is used to implement “applets” on a client computer. An“applet” is executable JAVA object bytecodes that are used to generate agraphical display on a client computer. The servlets of the presentinvention are executed on the server side and do not have graphicalcontent.

A servlet is typically instantiated on server startup. In thealternative, the servlet may be instantiated under a predetermined setof conditions or by client invocation. The servlet may be instantiatedand executed by using its URL (e.g., http://host/<servlet URL>). Thehttp protocol supports the passing of arguments, thus, arguments may bepassed to the servlet (e.g., http://host/<servlet URL>?<arguments>). Theproperties object is a JAVA programming language properties class whichcomprises a set of “name:value” pairs. A system administrator can passarguments to an instantiated HttpServlet object through the propertiesobject. In this way, the system administrator can “customize” anHttpServlet for a particular server at a particular site. For example,the system administrator can pass the Httpservlet object site specificinformation about the network location of a database which storesdocuments that will be requested by client processes across the networkor the amount of memory available in system buffers which will be usedfor processing the server administrator.

Once instantiated, a servlet loops until the server is shut off or adestroy method is called on the servlet by the server. Since the servletoperates in a continual loop as it waits for requests to act upon, theserver computer avoids the overhead of creating and destroying theservlet between requests to the servlet. In addition, keeping servletsalive between requests allows servlets to pass data and communicateamongst themselves. For example, servlets can maintain data about a userbetween sessions by the user. This data can be shared among differentservlets in order to customize a working environment within which theuser works. If servlets were created and destroyed on a per requestbasis, it would be much more difficult, if not practically impossible,for a servlet to understand the environment within which it runs andutilize this knowledge to provide improved processing capabilities. Theserver computer can call a destroy method on the servlet when someresource limit in terms of time, memory, etc. is reached.

The servlet application program interface (API) establishes a standardfor interfacing servlets with information servers, such as web servers.The servlet API contains methods for initializing a servlet, processingthe request, getting servlet information, and destroying the servlet.The servlet API allows platform independent servlets. An example servletinterface is as follows:

Servlet interface: interface HttpServlet { Initialize (ServletContext,ServerProperties); Service(HttpRequest, HttpResponse); Destroy(); }

The server computer passes objects that implement the “HttpRequest”,while the servlet returns an “HttpResponse” object. The “ServletContext”interface is used to exchange information with the server environment.Some of the methods on the “ServletContext” object are “Getserver( )”and “GetServlets( )”. “GetServer” returns a pointer to the parent serverwithin which the instantiated Httpservlet runs. Using this pointer, theHttpServlet object can find out information about its parent server. The“GetServlet” method returns pointers to the servlets running on theparent server. The “ServerProperties” interface is used to exchangeinformation regarding specific server properties established by a serveradministrator.

Servlets support the familiar programming model of accepting requestsand generating responses. The following is a simple servlet defining asingle method called “service”:

import java.servlet. *; public class MyServlet extends GenericServlet {public void service ( ServletRequest request, ServletResponse response )throws ServletException, IOException { . . . } . . . }

The service method is provided with Request and Response parameters.These parameters encapsulate the data sent by the client, therebyallowing servlets to report status information, such as errors. Servletsnormally retrieve most of their parameters through an input stream, andsend their responses using an output stream:

ServletInputStream in=request.getInputStream ( ):

ServletOutputStream out=response.getOutputStream ( );

These input and output streams may be used with data in whatever formatis appropriate. For example, an applet and servlet might exchange datausing object serialization, HTML, or any number of image formats.

Since servlets are JAVA objects, they have instance-specific data. Thismeans that in effect servlets are independent applications runningwithin servers, without needing the complexity of additional classes(which are required by some alternative server extension APIs). Servletshave access to some servlet-specific configuration data atinitialization time. This allows different instances of the same servletclass to be initialized with different data, and be managed asdifferently named servlets. The data provided at initialization timeincludes an area where each instance keeps its persistentinstance-specific state.

Building upon the previous simple servlet examples, the followingprogram code is an example of a servlet that is used to send HypertextMarkup Language (HTML) text when it is invoked:

public class SimpleServlet extends GenericServlet { public voidservice(ServletRequest req, ServletResponse res) throwsServletException, IOException { res.setContentType(“text/html”);PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter(res.getOutputStream());out.println(“<HEAD><TITLE> SimpleServlet Output </TITLE></HEAD><BODY>”);out.println(“<h1>SimpleServlet Output </hl>”); out.println(“<P>This isoutput from SimpleServlet.”); out.println(“<BODY>”); out.flush(); }public String getServletInfo() { return “A simple servlet”; } }

The following program code is an example of a servlet that uses thefinger protocol to query information about users on specified hostcomputers. The query string parameters <tt>user</tt>, <tt>hosts</tt>,and <tt>verbose</tt> can be used to specify the user and hosts to query.The parameter <tt>user</tt> is the user name, <tt>hosts</tt> is acomma-separated list of host names to query, and <tt>verbose</tt>, ifspecified, will cause verbose output to be generated. For example, <pre>http:/goa/finger.html?user=dac&hosts=eno,doppio&verbose=yes </pre> willrequest full information about user “dac” on both hosts “eno” and“doppio”.

public class FingerServlet extends GenericServlet { /* * Port number forfinger daemon. */ static final int FINGER_PORT = 79; /** * Handles asingle finger request from the client. */ public voidservice(ServletRequest req, ServletResponse res) throwsServletException, IOException { String user = req.getParameter(“user”);String hosts = req.getParameter(“hosts”); String verbose =req.getParameter(“verbose”); res.setContentType(“text/html”);PrintStream out = new PrintStream(res.getOutputStream());out.println(“<html>”); out.println(“<head><title>FingerServlet</title></head>”); out.println(“<body>”); out.println(“<h2>Fingerresults:</h2>”); outprintln(“<pre>”); if (hosts == null) { finger(out,user, null, “yes”.equalsIgnoreCase(verbose)); } else { StringTokenizerst = new StringTokenizer(hosts, “,”); while (st.hasMoreTokens()) {String host = st.nextToken(); out.println(“[” + host + “]”); try {finger(out, user, host, “yes”.equalsIgnoreCase(verbose)); } catch(IOException e) { out.println(e); } out.println(); } }out.println(“</pre>”); out.println(“</body></html>”); } /* * Sendsfinger output for a user and host to the specified output * stream. */void finger(OutputStream out, String user, String host, boolean verbose)throws IOException { // open connection to finger daemon Socket s; if(host == null) { s = new Socket(InetAddress.getLocalHost(),FINGER_PORT); } else { s = new Socket(host, FINGER_PORT); } // sendfinger command PrintStream ps = new PrintStream(s.getOutputStream()); if(verbose) { ps.print(“/W”); } if (user ! = null) { ps.print(user); }ps.print(“\r\n”); ps.flush(); // copy results to output streamInpurStream in = s.getInputStream(); byte[] buf = new byte [512]; intlen; while ((len = in.read(buf, 0, buf.length)) ! = −1) { out.write(buf,0, len); } s.close(); } }

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that servlets which are beingused with the HTTP protocol may support any HTTP method, including GET,POST, HEAD, and more. They may redirect requests to other locations, andsend HTTP-specific error messages. They can get access to parameterswhich were passed through standard HTML forms, including the HTTP methodto be performed and the URI, which identifies the destination of therequest.

As indicated above, one of the biggest performance features of servletsis that they do not require creation of a new process for each request.In most environments, many servlets run in parallel within the sameprocess as the server. When used in such environments with HTTP,servlets provide compelling performance advantages over both the CGIapproach and the Fast-CGI approach. This is because servlets have asmall computational expense during thread context switches. Since inmost environments servlets can handle many client requests each timethey are initialized, the cost of the initialization is spread over manymethods. All the client requests to that service have the opportunity toshare data and communications resources, benefitting more strongly fromsystem caches.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the servlets of theinvention can be used to dynamically extends Java-enabled servers. Theservlets provide a general framework for services built using therequest-response paradigm. The servlets can provide secure web-basedaccess to data which is presented using HTML web pages and they can beused for interactively viewing or modifying that data using dynamic webpage generation techniques.

The servlets of the invention may be used to provide customizedmulti-user services for customer bases. The servlets are also flexibleenough to support standardized services, such as serving static webpages through the HTTP (or HTTPS) protocols, and proxying services.Since they are used for dynamic extensibility, they may be used in aplug-in style, supporting facilities such as search engines andsemi-custom applications, such as web-based order entry or inventorysystems.

Although the servlets are preferably written in JAVA, the servletclients may be written in any language. When servlets are used in themiddle tiers of distributed application systems, they can in turn beclients to other services, written in any language.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that servlets may be used inseveral modes. The basic mode is at the core of a request/responseprotocol. In addition, servlets may be specialized to support protocolssuch as HTTP. In HTTP based applications, servlets are portable,complete, and much more efficient replacement for CGI based extensions.Also, in HTTP applications, servlets may be used with HTML server sideincludes to dynamically generate part of a web document.

The foregoing description, for purposes of explanation, used specificnomenclature to provide a thorough understanding of the invention.However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the specificdetails are not required in order to practice the invention. In otherinstances, well known circuits and devices are shown in block diagramform in order to avoid unnecessary distraction from the underlyinginvention. Thus, the foregoing descriptions of specific embodiments ofthe present invention are presented for purposes of illustration anddescription. They are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit theinvention to the precise forms disclosed, obviously many modificationsand variations are possible in view of the above teachings. Theembodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain theprinciples of the invention and its practical applications, to therebyenable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention andvarious embodiments with various modifications as are suited to theparticular use contemplated. It is intended that the scope of theinvention be defined by the following claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of dynamically generating informationusing a server computer of a client-server network, the methodcomprising: receiving, at said server computer, a request from a clientcomputer of the client-server network; determining that said requestrequires dynamically generated information from a servlet object of saidserver computer; executing said specified servlet object to obtaindynamically generated information corresponding to said request; andcommunicating said dynamically generated information from said servletobject to said client computer.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein saidservlet object is implemented as object bytecodes in the JAVAprogramming language.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein saidcommunicating comprises: passing said dynamically generated informationfrom said specified servlet object to a web server operation on saidserver computer, said passing step being facilitated by an applicationprogramming interface; and sending said dynamically generatedinformation from said web server to said client computer.
 4. The methodof claim 1, further comprising, at start-up of said server computer,instantiating a plurality of servlet objects, each of said plurality ofservlet objects continuously operating until invoked in response to aspecified request from a client computer.
 5. The method of claim 1,further comprising instantiating said servlet object in response to saidrequest form said client computer.
 6. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising instantiating said servlet object in response to an activatedservlet URL.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein said activated servletURL comprises arguments.
 8. A computer readable memory that can be usedto direct a server computer of a client-server computer network tofunction in a specified manner, comprising: a first set of instructionsto receive, at said server computer, a request from a client computer ofsaid client-server network; a second set of instructions to determinethat said request requires dynamically generated information from aservlet object of said server computer; a third set of instructions toexecute said specified servlet object to obtain dynamically generatedinformation corresponding to said request; and a fourth set ofinstructions to communicate dynamically generated information from saidservlet object to said client computer.
 9. The computer readable memoryof claim 8, wherein said servlet object is implemented as objectbytecodes in the JAVA programming language.
 10. The computer readablememory of claim 8, wherein said fourth set of instructions comprise:instructions to pass, through an application programming interface,dynamically generated information from said servlet object to a webserver operating on said server computer; and instructions to send saiddynamically generated information from said web server to said clientcomputer.
 11. The computer readable memory of claim 8, furthercomprising a set of instructions to instantiate a plurality of servletobjects at start-up of said server computer, each of said plurality ofservlet objects continuously operating until invoked in response to aspecified request form a client computer.
 12. The computer readablememoru of claim 11, further comprising a set of instructions to passdata between said plurality of servlet objects.
 13. The computerreadable memory of claim 8, further comprising a set of instructions toinstantiate said servlet object in response to said request from saidclient computer.
 14. The computer readable memory of claim 8, furthercomprising a set of instructions to instantiate said servlet object inresponse to an activated servlet URL.
 15. The computer readable memoryof claim 14, wherein said activated servlet URL comprise arguments.